Rollers for toroidal coil winding machines



p 1969 w. A. BERNAU ETAL 3,465,978

ROLLERS FOR TOROIDAL COIL WINDING MACHINES Filed April 26, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS 561/ A. YERMA/V WIL M A. BERNAU A T TOR/V5 Y5 Sept. 9, 196% w. A. BERNAU ET AL 3,465,978

ROLLERS FOR TOROIDAL COIL WINDING MACHINES Filed April 26, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IHIIIHHH? INX'ENTORS 541/4 ,4. YERMA/v WILL/AM A.BERNAU FIG.6 B

ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent 3,465,978 ROLLERS FOR TOROIDAL COIL WINDING MACHINES William A. Bernau, Short Hills, and Emil A. Yerman,

South Plainfield, N.J., assignors to Universal Manufacturing Company, Inc., Irvington, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Apr. 26, 1967, Ser. No. 633,824 Int. Cl. B65h 81/02; F1611 55/36 US. Cl. 242-4 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A roller for engagement with a shuttle of a winding machine. The roller is provided with a resilient O-ring seated in a groove or recess for receiving the shuttle. The roller is arranged in several forms to receive elastic and non-elastic O-rings by disassembling the roller.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The invention relates to winding and reeling apparatus and more particularly rollers used to drive or support shuttles in such apparatus.

Description of the prior art In winding and reeling apparatus heretofore, drive and support rollers of hard material such as steel in rolling frictional engagement with a shuttle carrying strand for winding, result in slippage and wear of the surface of either or both the roller and shuttle. Furthermore, precise machining and accurate spacing of the surfaces of the rollers and shuttle are an essential for accurate winding operations, since any deviation from such requirements results in slippage of the roller whereby the shuttle speed deviates from the required winding speeds. Any warping of the shuttle from its plane normal to its axis aggravates wear as well as slippage and speed control. Although such apparatus of the prior art has been operating satisfactorily for many years, it is well known that the costs of manufacturing are increased in order to satisfy these severe requirements. It is a general objective of this invention to overcome these problems by providing a resilient surface on the roller for a portion of the surfaces in rolling contact with the shuttle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the invention I provide an annular groove within a generally V-shaped groove in the roller of the usual hard material such as steel and insert therein an O-ring of resilient material such as rubber, plastic or fabric, or combination thereof. The O-ring groove is disposed radially inwardly of the annular recess in the periphery of the roller, the walls of which annular V-groove recess being inclined inwardly to each other from the outer surface of the roller. The inclined walls, of usual form otherwise, conform to and mate with the peripheral edge of the shuttle. The shuttle in rolling engagement with the roller seats flush with the inclined surfaces of the roller and presses against the outer surface of the resilient O-ring.

3,465,978 Patented Sept. 9, 1969 The arrangement results in the principal friction and support forces being radial through the planes containing the O-ring therebetween. Accordingly the wear due to the rolling action of the shuttle on the rollers is pr dominantly of the resilient O-ring. Furthermore, since the forces of rolling drive are at the same surfaces less slippage occurs during the high speed operation that these machines attain.

Since the O-rings are relatively much less costly than the shuttle and rollers, more frequent replacement of the O-ring alone is advantageously a cost-saving in maintaining such machines.

According to the invention, furthermore, there is provided means to disassemble the roller for easy replacement of the O-ring, especially advantageous when the O-rmgs are made of non-elastic materials, such as fabric.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING In the drawing,

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of portions of a toroidal coil winding machine illustrating the rollers;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary section View of a roller and shuttle and the O-ring of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view similar to FIG. 2 of a modified form;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a roller arranged for threaded-disassembly; and

FIGS. 5, 6, 7, 8. and 9 are modified forms of the roller of FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The toroidal coil winding machine selected to illustrate the invention includes an annular shuttle 10 supported by three rollers 12 each having an annular O-ring 14 nested in an annular groove 16 in each roller 12. Each roller 12 is rotated about its respective shaft 18 attached to the winding machine by the usual means (not shown).

The shuttle 10 is provided with a removable segment 20 whereby it is opened to permit the removal of a core 22 linked therein. Any form of shuttle may be used including those not having a removable segment but merely a split so as to separate the ends at the split to receive a core 22 therethrough in linked relation. The core is supported as by clamps 24 suitably connected to the winding machine (not shown).

According to the invention I provide an annular groove 16 in the roller 12 (FIG. 2) to receive an O-ring 14 of flexible material. The ring may be made of rubber,

plastic, fabric, or combinations thereof, and is formed with a cross section in circular, square, rectangular or other suitable form as desired. The roller 12 is made of hard, durable material such as steel and the shuttle 10 is also made of similar material, as well known in this art. Heretofore, the running engagement of such shuttles with such rollers caused wear by friction of both parts and thereby resulted in slippage of the relative surfaces in running contact as well as displacement of the shuttle relative to the core 22. The wear of either the rollers, or the shuttle or both, results in a displacement of the rolling combination as to effect wobble during the high speeds expected in these machines. I have discovered that the flexible ring 14 reduces the wear of the shuttle 10 as well as the wear on the slant mating surfaces of the roller in engagement with the surfaces of the shuttle 10 3 as at 10b and 10c (FIG. 2). The inner surface 10a of the shuttle, of course, has virtually no wear since it is in running contact with the deformed surface 14a of the flexible ring 14, as shown in FIG. 2.

The surface 10a of shuttle 10 may also be provided with a shallow recess 26, such as shown in FIG. 3, so that the O-ring 14 is not so greatly deformed during operation thereby prolonging the life of the O-ring 14.

The ring 14 being of less durable material than roller 12 is expected to wear more rapidly and thereby require more frequent replacement. Accordingly the ring 14 when desired to be replaced is merely stretched or deformed out of the annular groove 16 and slipped over the inner lip or outer lip 28 portion of the roller 12.

It may be desired not to use a ring of such material as to require stretching over the roller lips and for such purposes I provide several forms of rollers, each of which may be used as desired to receive flexible O-rings of varying degrees of elasticity, and indeed to utilize rings with no elastic properties, such as a fabric ring.

Referring to FIG. 4, a roller is shown with an inner lip portion 102 of annular form having an inner threaded portion mating a corresponding threaded portion on the roller 100 as at 104. Three holes 108 are provided for receiving a spanner wrench for facilitating the assembly and disassembly of the portion 102 with the main body portion 100. The O-ring 14 is nested in an annular groove 106 provided in the inner face of the roller 100. The O-ring 14 is easily inserted into or removed from the groove 106 when the annular lip 102 is disassembled from the roller 100.

A modification of the removable lip portion of the roller 12, is shown in FIG. 5, wherein the roller 110 is provided with outer-face annular lip portion 112 having threads mating corresponding threads in the roller as at 114. Holes 116 are provided to receive a suitable wrench as for the form of roller shown in FIG. 4.

In FIG. 6, I provide still another modification of the roller to accommodate easy reception of an O-ring 14. This form of roller is provided in two parts, one telescoping, in effect, into the other. The outer planar portion 122 includes a central hub provided with threads for mating with threads on the inner wall of the inner portion 120. Portion 122 is provided with a groove into which O-ring 14 is seated. The two inside surfaces of the portions 120 and 122 mate in butted relation when the hub is inserted and fully threaded into the portion 120. The holes 116 are provided for use with the spanner wrench.

FIG. 7 illustrates still another form of the roller. An

annular plate portion having a groove for O-ring 14 is positioned on the main body portion by screws 142 engaging the threaded holes in the portion 140. No spanner wrench holes are needed since the plate 130 is merely positioned over the recess on the main body portion 140.

FIG. 8 illustrates a fragmentary portion of the roller 12 provided with a rectangular groove 16A of sufiicient width to receive an O-ring insert 14A having its V-groove formed therein as by molding or machining. The insert 14A can be formed separately from the roller and thereafter placed into the groove by stretching it over the outer diameter portion of the roller 12 or by cutting or splitting the ring at one portion if the material is not elastic and then cementing the ring in place in the groove 16A. If the. insert is to be formed of rubber or plastic material, the groove 16A can be filled with the material in plastic form and thereafter by suitable heating, curing or vulcanization of plastic or rubber can be effected in situ. The cured or vulcanized material can then be machined to form the slant walls and cylindrical bottom of the groove.

FIG. 9 illustrates a modification of the form of the invention illustrated in FIG. 8 where the groove 16B is arranged to receive or form an O-ring insert 14B which has only one side or slant wall of the desired V-groove, the other wall of the V-groove being formed by the material of the roller 12. The insert 14B is formed in situ or 4 separately as just described in respect of the form of FIG. 8.

Advantageously, the surface of the walls of the grooves 14, 14A and 148 as shown in each of the embodiments is left in rough condition and is therefore not provided with a smooth finish for two purposes: first, to provide a better friction contact between the roller and the O-ring insert and, second, to provide better adhesion between the insert and the roller for those inserts which are substantially forming the V-groove.

The rollers of this invention are used with winding machines of the type where at least one of the three rollers is a drive roller for driving the shuttle 10. Such a machine is of the type shown and described in US. Patent 3,165,273. The rollers of this invention may also be used in winding machines Where they serve only to support the shuttle, the shuttle being driven in cooperative relation with separate ring gear. Such a machine is of the type shown and described in co-pending application Ser. No. 441,472, filed Mar. 22, 1965 and assigned to the same assignee. It will be appreciated that whether the roller 12 is driving or merely rolling with rotation of a shuttle 10, the operation of the resilient O-ring 14 in the groove 16 of the roller with a shuttle 10 will reduce wear of both parts.

In addition, shuttles which may be imperfectly formed as by being imperfect in true circular form in its plane normal to the axis of rotation, may still perform satisfactorily in a winding machine provided with rollers of my invention. Since the O-ring has a flexible surface the precise relative spacing of the rollers in respect to the shuttle is less stringent since variations in the radius of the shuttle will be followed by expansion and compression of the O-ring as it reacts to the radial variations. Thus the O-ring is in continuous contact with the shuttle even if the shuttle is imperfect and as such would be inoperative in machines heretofore having non-resilient rollers.

What we claim is:

1. In a toroidal coil winding machine having a shuttle of the character described adapted to be loaded with strand and driven about its axis, a plurality of supporting rollers in rolling contact with the inner surface of the shuttle, wherein the improvement comprises:

(a) a V-shaped annular groove in the periphery of each roller;

(b) an annular groove formed in said roller at the base of said V-groove;

(c) an O-ring of resilient material in said annular groove disposed for rolling engagement with the shuttle, said O-ring being of suflicient size within said groove so that the principal friction and support forces between the roller and the shuttle are substantially in the planes containing said O-ring therebetween;

(d) the side walls of the V-groove are flush with the mating wall of the shuttle and the peripheral edge of said shuttle is in contact with the surface of the O-ring.

2. In a winding machine according to claim 1, wherein said roller is segmented along a plane including an annular side wall of said second annular groove for accessible replacement of said O-ring in said second groove.

3. In a winding machine according to claim 2, comprising two segments, each having mating threaded portions for attaching one segment to the other.

4. In a winding machine according to claim 1, comprising means to drive at least one of said rollers to drive said shuttle.

5. In a winding machine according to claim 1, wherein bonding means holds said O-ring in place.

6. In a winding machine according to claim 1, wherein said O-ring is formed of material taken from the class consisting of natural or synthetic rubber or natural or synthetic plastic and said O-ring is formed in situ in said groove.

5 6 7. In a winding machine according to claim 1, wherein 2,973,154 2/ 1961 Blackburn 2424 said roller is metallic and said insert is taken from the 3,061,213 10/ 1962 Gorman 2424 class consisting of rubber or plastic. 3,177,733 4/ 1965 Yamano 74230.7 3,181,803 4/1965 Warburton et al 2424 References Cite 5 3,375,725 4/1968 Mathison 74230.7 UNITED sTAtrEs PATENTS BILLY S. TAYLOR, Primary Examiner 1,179,238 4/1916 Swaln 74230.3 XR 2,326,671 8/1943 Patterson 7423O.7 XR U S CL X R 2,810,530 10/1957 Marst ers 2424 74 230 3 

